This noir film directed by Robert Wise is bereft of characters you can sympathize with save for Audrey Long and Phillip Terry. It does however rivet your attention to the leads of Lawrence Tierney and Claire Trevor, a pair of amorals if I ever saw one.
Back in Reno where Trevor was getting shed of a husband she happens to discover the murders of Isabelle Jewell and Tony Barrett done by a very jealous man played by Lawrence Tierney whom she meets on the train to San Francisco. They like each other, but he focuses on Audrey Long, Trevor's half sister who was lucky enough to have a father worth a fortune.
But Tierney's past is ever so slowly creeping up on him. And Trevor while now engaged to Terry, still she can't resist Tierney. Pity these two just didn't hitch, they truly deserve each other and not the people they were going with.
What I love about Born To Kill is the great care that Robert Wise took in both assembling his supporting cast and fleshing them out. Rarely do you see that in a B film. Those already mentioned plus Elisha Cook, Jr. as Tierney's luckless pal, Walter Slezak as a private detective open to a little blackmail, and Esther Howard as the landlady in Reno who hires Slezak to investigate the murder of her friend Jewell.
Born To Kill will keep you glued to the television or the big screen as it did in 1946 I'm sure. A truly fascinating bunch.
Back in Reno where Trevor was getting shed of a husband she happens to discover the murders of Isabelle Jewell and Tony Barrett done by a very jealous man played by Lawrence Tierney whom she meets on the train to San Francisco. They like each other, but he focuses on Audrey Long, Trevor's half sister who was lucky enough to have a father worth a fortune.
But Tierney's past is ever so slowly creeping up on him. And Trevor while now engaged to Terry, still she can't resist Tierney. Pity these two just didn't hitch, they truly deserve each other and not the people they were going with.
What I love about Born To Kill is the great care that Robert Wise took in both assembling his supporting cast and fleshing them out. Rarely do you see that in a B film. Those already mentioned plus Elisha Cook, Jr. as Tierney's luckless pal, Walter Slezak as a private detective open to a little blackmail, and Esther Howard as the landlady in Reno who hires Slezak to investigate the murder of her friend Jewell.
Born To Kill will keep you glued to the television or the big screen as it did in 1946 I'm sure. A truly fascinating bunch.